The 20th anniversary of the Sumgait massacre was marked in Nagorno Artsax. NKR top officials headed by President Bako Sahakian and ordinary citizens attended the Memorial to commemorate the victims of the tragedy. Priests of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church chanted a liturgy in memory of the innocent murder victims, IA Regnum reports. The Sumgait massacre in February 1988 that claimed lives of 32 Armenians was the first mass explosion of ethnic valance in the modern soviet history that resulted in huge refugee flows to Armenia and Nagorno Artsax.

A soiree marking the 20th anniversary of Sumgait pogroms took place in Tbilisi February 28. A documentary was screened and a photo exhibition dedicated to the Sumgait pogroms and start of the Artsax Movement opened in Georgia’s capital. The Sumgait massacre in February 1988 that claimed lives of 32 Armenians was the first mass explosion of ethnic valance in the modern soviet history that resulted in huge refugee flows to Armenia and Nagorno Artsax. The tragedy in Sumgait entailed ethnic cleansings in Baku, Kirovabad and other Azeri towns.

, political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. “The Sumgait atrocities can’t even be described as conduct of normal but embittered by propaganda industry people. Judging by the large-scale involvement and silent agreement of the population, it’s easy to conclude that the Azeri nation is seriously ill. Meanwhile, the leadership keeps on filling the “syndrome of crowd” into the fevered brain of a Turkic average man,” Melik-Shahnazaryan said. He reminded that in November 1988 a group of young patriots led by Igor Muradyan (one of the founders of the Artsax committee) requested the committee members to introduce a draft resolution recognizing the Sumgait events as Genocide to the Armenian SSR Supreme Council session. “However, the committee chaired by Levon Ter-Petrosyan was busy with a more important task – democratization of Armenia. The patriots’ demands ended in a fight in then-Theater Square on November 4. The Artsax committee rejected the proposal. November 21, 1988 emerged as the start of mass killings, pogroms and deportation of Armenians from Azerbaijan,” he said. “A crime without punishment entails a recurrence. A crime without condemnation transforms into mass mental disease,” he noted. Sumagit pogroms in February 1988 claimed lives of 32 Armenians. The Armenian population of the town – some 15 thousand people – fled to Armenia. Many of them died in Spitak earthquake on December 7, 1988.

Twenty Years of Remembering: Bitter memories of Sumgait:By Ani HakobyanArmeniaNow Gyumri reporterGurgen Muradyan turns pages of an album with newspaper publications related to Armenian-Azerbaijani relations he has been collecting for 60 years. The photos of Soviet officials, loose leaf calendar’s pages demonstrating the decisive days for the Armenian nation and stories published in various periodicals make Muradyan’s album a unique narrator of history.

There are pages, too, that 75 year-old Muradyan wishes were not part of his history. When he reaches 1988 the painful memories reflect on the old man’s face.

Muradyans have mixed feelings of pain and gratitude about the days of Sumgait atrocitiesMuradyan and his wife Lida are refugees from Sumgait, the Azerbaijani seaside town, where in February 1988 Azeris organized pogroms against the Armenian population of the town. According to official (Soviet) data, 32 Armenians were killed; however those who witnessed pogroms say that the number of victims was close to 200. The massacre came as a reply to events in Nagorno-Artsax, as it started its fight for liberation, and the Sumgait pogroms became the first episode of ethnic cleansing on Soviet territory.

As many Armenian witnesses said the pogroms started at daylight and Muradyan’s family was among those targeted. Twenty years later they still remember those events with a shudder.

“I went to the work to the plant as usual,” says Lida Muradyan, 65 “and some of my colleagues were crying, saying ‘Lida, why have you gone out? Armenians today should not leave their homes, there may be an attack on them today’.”

“They killed 5 Armenians only during that night,” she adds. “They took a young, newly engaged girl to the streets, took away her clothes, poured gasoline on her and lit her up. Only a handful of ash remained of them. No one approached, as the Azeri brutal mob said no one had the right to interfere, they could do whatever they wanted.”

According to official data there were 18,000 Armenian residing in the city of 250,000.

The Muradyans were confident in those days the gangs who launched the acts of terror were not their co-citizens, but Azeris living in Armenia. Many of the Armenians in Sumgait were rescued by the local Azeris in those three days of atrocities and the Muradyans still consider those Azeris their friends.

The couple always recalls their Azeri neighbors with great gratitude. One of the neighbors told them not to stay at their home and invited them to his place.

The Muradyans settled in Sumgait in 1959. Gurgen used to work as a driver; Lida worked as a packager at a clothes factory.

When the attacks ended, they first fled to Russia, but then came to Armenia.

Muradyan’s family settled in Leninakan [now Gyumri] with 31 other families from Sumgait. With the help of one Azeri they managed to go back to Sumgait to bring their things to Leninakan. Soon they received an apartment in their new home, but several months later the building they lived in was destroyed by the 1988 earthquake.

Like many residents of Gyumri this family found a shelter in a temporary house and stayed there until November 2004, when they got an appartment built by the Norwegian Council for refugees.

The state pensions hardly suffice for life, but they can share their memories of the good life they once lived with the other seven families from Sumgait in Gyumri.

The Muradyans do not blame the Azerbaijani people in what happened in Sumgait.

“People were innocent; it was the rulers to be blamed, both here and in Azerbaijan. I have studied it and seen it myself,” says Gurgen Muradyan.

YEREVAN, 28.02.08. DE FACTO. “It is the 20th anniversary of the Soumgait atrocity, and we state with pain that during the past years we have not managed to reveal and punish the organizers and those responsible for this crime. The Soumgait atrocity has become a prolog of mass ethnic cleansings and lawlessness perpetrated against Azerbaijan’s Armenians in 1988-1991. As a result of violent actions by the Azerbaijani authorities and criminal elements over half a million Armenians had to leave Azerbaijan to save their life and became refugees”, a statement of the Network of Civil Society “Refugees and International Law” circulated on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of anti-Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani town of Soumgait runs. It is underscored in the statement that the mournful anniversary of the Soumgait tragedy “is another cause to remind Armenia’s authorities that the fact of violation of rights of thousands of Armenian refugees cannot be ignored”. According to the statement’s authors, the Artsax talks have not yielded results, because the Armenian party did not display adherence to principle and as early as in the beginning of nineties consigned to oblivion the issue of Armenian refugees.

“The Sumgait atrocities can’t even be described as conduct of normal but embittered by propaganda industry people. Judging by the large-scale involvement and silent agreement of the population, it’s easy to conclude that the Azeri nation is seriously ill. Meanwhile, the leadership keeps on filling the “syndrome of crowd” into the fevered brain of a Turkic average man,” Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

He reminded that in November 1988 a group of young patriots led by Igor Muradyan (one of the founders of the Artsax committee) requested the committee members to introduce a draft resolution recognizing the Sumgait events as Genocide to the Armenian SSR Supreme Council session. “However, the committee chaired by Levon Ter-Petrosyan was busy with a more important task – democratization of Armenia. The patriots’ demands ended in a fight in then-Theater Square on November 4. The Artsax committee rejected the proposal. November 21, 1988 emerged as the start of mass killings, pogroms and deportation of Armenians from Azerbaijan,” he said.

“A crime without punishment entails a recurrence. A crime without condemnation transforms into mass mental disease,” he noted.

Sumagit pogroms in February 1988 claimed lives of 32 Armenians. The Armenian population of the town – some 15 thousand people – fled to Armenia. Many of them died in Spitak earthquake on December 7, 1988.

In all cases history is 180 degrees upside down for the Turds. The problem is there are buyers for such bullshit. They have already erected a monument in the Hague for that insignificant non-incident, invented by Thomas Goltz & Co.

lol wow...that was real fascinating reporting.i love how armenians are portrayed as brutes who rape and murder eachother, and yet are still cunning enough to 'create' a massacre against themselves.i don't know if anyone who was alive back then would believe this..

It is difficult to define the exact number of victims of Sumgait massacre due to refusal of Azeri government to help. Basing on the data provided by the Prosecutor’s office of Azerbaijan, the Prosecutor’s office of the USSR announced that 26 citizens of Armenian nationality perished in Sumgait (“Izvestiya”, 03.03.1988).

Lola Avagyan, born in 1961 Place of residence: Sumgait, block 45, 10/13, apt. 37 On February 29th, 1988 after her apartment was attacked, Avagyan was undressed and taken to the street. They made her dance, stabbed her with knives, cut her breast, stuck her body with lit cigarettes, and raped her. After death the body was mutilated; relatives recognized her by the little finger. Her father, Pavel Manvelyan said he had been in three morgues in Sumgait, Baku and Mardakyans (20 km away from Baku), and found body of his daughter in Mardakyans; she was number 71 among other corpses. Pavel Manvelyan testified in Moscow and signed the testimony. He has seen more than 100 piled dead bodies in three morgues. L. Avagyan’s husband, Alexander Avagyan was beaten within an inch of his life.

Yury Avagyan, born in 1936 in the village of Mohrenes, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 5/2, apt. 47 “Cerebral and ventricle hemorrhage, calvarium fracture, head wounds, burns all over the body” (After his apartment was attacked, Avagyan was taken to the street, beaten, cut up, burnt in the fire).

Albert Avanesyan, born in 1955 Address: Sumgait, block 5, 19/28, apt. 1 Acute hemorrhage, left lung and intercostal artery injury, penetrating stab and cut wounds on left side of the thorax. Albert was murdered with his brother Valery in the street.

Valery Avanesyan, born in 1957 Place of residence: Sumgait, block 5, 19/28, apt. 1 Cerebral and ventricle hemorrhage, compound wound of left zygomatic region, rib fracture, penetrating stab and cut wound of abdomen, mesentery injury. Valery was murdered with his brother Albert in the street.

Misha Ambartsumyan, born in 1941 in the village of Zamzur, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 4 micro district, 18/24, apt. 2 Murdered in the street. “Burn shock, third-degree burn of 2/3 of body surface, comminuted fracture of cranial bones, cerebral hemorrhage”

. Armo Aramyan, born in 1928 in the village of Kyatuk, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 21 “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, fracture of cranial bones”. Was murdered together with his son Arthur; his wife was saved by a miracle.

Arthur Aramyan, born in 1963 in the village of Kyatuk, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 21 “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, fracture of cranial bones”. Was murdered together with his father; his mother was saved by a miracle.

Vladimir Arushanyan, born in 1936 in the village of Arjadzor, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 16 “Cerebral soft membrane and ventricle hemorrhage”. His wife, R. Arushanyan (officially recorded as missing), was also killed.

Razmella Arushanyan, born in 1939 in the village of Chldran, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 16

EXTRACT FROM AN APPEAL: COMRADES! On 28.02.88 about 24:00 citizen Razmella Arushanyan, born in 1939, left the central checkpoint of the tube-rolling mill; she is missing. Last time she was seen naked among an outrageous crowd of people on Mir Street near the railway crossing. INVESTIGATORS: PAVLOVSKY S. KOZLENKO A.

Arshak Babayan, born in 1931 in the village of Akaku, Hadrut region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 4 block, 27A, apt. 12 He was killed at home. “Cerebral soft membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, fracture of cranial bones and left ribs, blunt trauma of the body”.

. Yelena Babayan, born in 1932 in the village of Metsashen, Martakert region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 12 micro district, 29, apt. 52 According to her husband Artyusha Babayan, she was beaten on February 28th on her way home from work. She lied at home motionlessly until March 16th. The ambulance refused to take her to hospital. Yelena Babayan died on March 16th.

Alexander Gambaryan, born in 1926 in the village of Verkhny Chaylu, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 17, apt. 40 Was killed at home by a crowbar blow. Craniocerebral injury.

Emma Grigoryan, born in 1930 in the village of Armyanskie Borisy, Shahumyan region. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 5/2, apt. 45 Naked, she was taken to the street from the 4th floor and set on a bench in front of the doorway. They burnt cigarettes on her body, raped her, smashed her head, broke the ribs, stuck a metal pipe into her vagina. “Shock, hemorrhage, rupture of posterior wall of vagina, rectum wall injury, retroperitoneal haematoma, fracture of II – VI right bones and X thoracic vertebra”.

Nikolay Danielyan, born in 1939 in the village of Badara, Askerna region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 4/2, apt. 25 Was taken to the street together with his wife and son. His wife was also killed; son was badly wounded. “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, cranial bones fracture, blunt head trauma”.

Seda Danielyan, born in 1938. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 4/2, apt. 25 Was taken to the street together with her husband and son; was killed after malicious insults. “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, cranial bones fracture, blunt head trauma”.

Garry Martirosov, born in 1954. Place of residence: Baku, Lenin Ave, 43, apt 16 “Cerebral hemorrhage, cranial bones fracture, 3rd- and 4th-degree burns all over the body. On 29.02.88 in 15:30 – 16:30 was taken out of a ”RAF” or “UAZ” minibus near the railway crossing; was beaten; then burnt.

Soghomon Melkumyan, born in 1931 in the village of Jilan, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, block 41A, 26, apt. 21 Was killed with his wife and three children. “Burn of the body, open penetrating craniocerebral injury”.

Raisa Melkumyan, born in 1934 in the village of Jilan, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, block 41A, 26, apt. 21 Was killed with her husband and three children. Was taken naked to the doorway. After the murder the teenagers scoffed at the body. “Acute hemorrhage, chopped calvarium wound, rectum wound with hemorrhage, fracture of 5th right rib, grazes and bruises over the body”.

. Igor Melkumyan, born in 1957 in the village of Jilan, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, block 41A, 26, apt. 21 Was killed with his mother, father, sister and brother. After being beaten was burnt alive. “Burn shock, 2nd and 3rd degree burns of the body. Carbon monoxide gassing. Compound occiput wound.”

Irina Melkumyan, born in 1961 in the village of Jilan, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, block 41A, 26, apt. 21 Was killed with four other members of her family – mother, father, and two brothers. Was raped, then taken naked to the street. Was burnt after being mocked at and beaten. “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, chopped head wound, fractures of calvarium and skull base, charred corpse”.

Eduard Melkumyan, born in 1960 in the village of Jilan, Hadrut region, Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, block 41A , 26, apt. 21 Was killed with his mother, father, sister and brother. Accomplished his military service in the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. “Cerebral membrane and ventricle hemorrhage, cranial bones fracture. (Was burnt and mutilated so much that his body was recognized by the shoes.)

Phiruza Melkumyan, 70 year old Was born in the village of Garnakar, Martakert region of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District Place of residence: Sumgait, 17 micro district, 51, apt. 59 Was killed at home on February 29 at 16:00. She was beaten, then her body was cut by numerous axe blows. Her screams were heard throughout the whole 17 micro district; no one came for help.

Shahen Sarkisyan, born in 1927 in the village of Karakend, Martuni region, of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, block 5, 14, apt. 16 “Radial fracture of occipital bone, fracture of sternum and 6 ribs…Death was caused a severe craniocerebral injury”, thus 62-year old carpenter Shahen Sarkisyan was dying, being thrown out by the outrageous mob from his car on Mir street (STREET OF PEACE) in Sumgait (Moskovskie Novosti, N 21, 22.05.88)

) Rafik Tovmasyan, born in 1956 in the village of Vank, Martakert region, of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous District. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 8 Acute hemorrhage. (Was defending himself during 8 hours with his father-in-law at their neighbours’ place, the Trdatovs. Azeri gangsters tried to get into the apartment through the broken partition of the neighbouring apartment, the balcony of the upper floor and then with the help of the ladder of the fire engine that came to help. Was killed in the unequal fight.)

Gabriel Trdatov, born in 1925 in the village of Kerkenj, Shemakhi region, Azeri SSR. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 6/2, apt. 6 Was defending himself with his son, wife and two neighbours (Hrant Adamyan and his son-in-law – Rafik Tovmasyan) during 8 hours from gangster Azeris who tried to get into the apartment through the door, the broken partition of the neighbouring apartment, the balcony of the upper floor and then with the help of the ladder of the fire-engine that came to help. He got 3 knife wounds, two axe blows, his left eardrum burst from a stone blow. He died in the hospital on March 4 night.

Tamara Mekhtieva, 70-75 year old Was born in the town of Sisian, Armenian SSR. Place of residence: Sumgait, 3 micro district, 16, apt. 49 A single woman with no relatives. Was killed and thrown out to the hallway. A neighbour saw her dead body.

Arusyak Sayan, born in 1914 in Fizuli. Place of residence: Sumgait, block 14, Azizbekov Str. 38/5, apt. 8 On February 29 Sayan’s state of health deteriorated abruptly due to events happening in the city. She was refused emergency medical aid; the refusal motivation was: “Armenians should have it more”. She died the same day. Arusyak Sayan’s body was buried on March 1st without her daughter’s and relatives’ participation; they could not leave the city committee building where troops evacuated the Armenian population of Sumgait.

A several month old infant Died in the building of Vurgun club, where troops evacuated part of the Armenian population of Sumgait. The baby died on the hands of Badasyan Zaven. There were no wounds or bruises on his body, but the chaos, insanitariness, and absolutely absence of medical care during the first days allow to consider the baby a victim of Sumgait tragedy. On March 6th, after the baby’s death all the Armenians were forced to leave the club building due to the reason that any moment dysentery and typhus epidemic may burst out in the club.

Dissident tells ‘slaughter by Muslims’ in the maternity unit(excerpts from the article)

by Christopher Walker, then Times’ correspondent in Moscow

Source: London Times, 12-March-1988

...

A Muslim mob broke into a maternity ward in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait during ethnic rioting, disembowelled pregnant Armenian women and killed babies, according to a chilling account of the recent violence provided by the first independent witness to return from the city, now under military curfew and closed to foreigners. Andrei Shilkov, an editor of the Soviet underground journal Glasnost, yesterday painted a horrific picture of atrocities he alleged had taken place in the city late last month.

While KGB agents monitored his flat, Mr Shilkov, aged 36, told newsmen inside that he had been informed by different residents, including Russians with no particular ethnic axe to grind, that Armenians had been flung into the streets by rampaging mobs of Azerbaijanis.

The worst single incident in the violence on February 28 and 29 is said to have occurred in a maternity hospital. Mr Shilkov quoted an account provided to him by an Azerbaijani nurse who had been working there but who had now left the city in disgust at the events which she witnessed.

"The killers broke into the maternity hospital and doctors were made at knifepoint to show them where the Armenian women were lying, " Mr Shilkov told the shocked correspondents. "They disembowelled them all in a bloodbath. The new babies were held by the legs and swung and smashed against the wall and then thrown out of the windows."

...

"I spoke with an Azerbaijani woman whose upstairs neighbours were Armenians, " she said. "She saw the mob throw the Armenian daughter, a young girl, out of the window. When they realized that she was not dead, they threw a heavy wardrobe down on top of her to kill her."

Interview with an Eyewitness to the Sumgait Uprising (excerpts from the article)

On March 9, 1989 a special correspondent for the Across Frontiers magazine visited Sumgait and talked to an Azerbaijani militiaman who had been in the cordoning detail during the Armenian massacres of 1988.

Source: Across Frontiers, winter spring 1989, p 22-23

"The disorder began on Saturday, February 27 toward evening, at 9-10:00 pm. A crowd looted stores. On Sunday, February 28, the atrocities began in the morning, at 11:00 am, A crowd gathered in the center of the city on the square where emblems of the Soviet republics were standing. First they threw stones at the emblem of the Armenian republic. They rocked and turned over cars and set them on fire. The crowd rioted."

...

"Less than 1,000 people, but it grew by evening. It was mostly minors from 12 to 17 years old."

...

On Sunday, February 28, the Baladzharsky Regiment came into the city, but they couldn't disperse the crowd either. This is a special regiment: they've got helmets, clubs, bayonets. But nothing worked, since the crowd outnumbered them. At that time there were already one- and-a-half to two thousand people, at least. A great number of the soldiers were injured. They were throwing stones at the soldiers, really big stones, and throwing them from all sides. About 30 or 40 of the military were injured, but there weren't any deaths.

...

How did the militia act?

"The militia-about 300 men-was from Baku. They ran away from the crowd in five minutes-no one was left on the square. Actually, the Armenian population was left to fate, without protection. Whoever could save himself, saved himself. Neither the militia nor the army could help. The actions of the militia did not coordinate with the actions of the army. The crowd robbed, set things on Eire, and murdered. They shouted "Hurray!" and the crowd surged forward. The militiamen left a colonel, their superior, and stared running to save themselves; Everyone saved himself however he could. They left their officers and absolutely every- one ran away .If the crowd had caught up with them they would have killed them. The crowd didn't spare anyone, they rioted until 1:00 am. They went into apartments broke down doors, annihilated everyone who was there, and robbed them. In the end there was general looting. Several Azerbaijani families hid their Armenian neighbors in their apartments, so several apartments that the crowd set on fire were empty. In some apartment houses the Azerbaijanis armed themselves with anything they could find and wouldn't let the crowd in. And the crowd left. But the crowd rioted wherever it could. Where people weren't able to get out or weren't able to hide-women were raped, brutalized, their breasts were cut off; people were thrown off balconies alive and then their apartments were set on fire. I myself saw a person thrown from a balcony. Towards morning things quieted down, but the killing continued."

...

"The crowd was gone—there were only individual bands, but there were more murders on Monday than on Sunday. They went into apartments in groups of 20 to 30, killed people, robbed them. But then it stopped. The regular army came and the crowd was afraid-the army had arrived. The army had orders to use any measures, up to the most extreme."

...

What happened after that?

...

On Tuesday the army announced an evening curfew: up to 6:00 pm no one was allowed to walk in pairs, and then after 6:00 pm no one was allowed out at all, even militiamen.

Is it true that people were crushed by tanks?

The crowd wasn't crushed by tanks. Simply several people darted out in front of an armoured carrier. They tried to stop, but it was going fast. He tried to brake but he couldn't in time and he ran over four people. The crowd wasn't run over. If the carrier hadn't stopped he would have run over a lot of people."

How many people were maimed?

'Together with the militia and soldiers about 200."

What caused the disorder?

They were incited. In Sumgait there are a great number of young people, not natives by and large, who aren't happy with their living conditions. Their pay is low, there's no place to spend their spare time. The kernel of instigators consisted of about 30 people from Kafan. They weren't satisfied.

With what exactly?

They said that in Kafan (Armenian SSR) they were chased out, someone was raped, someone was killed. In actual fact that was all lies, instigation. There were people in their group that tried to incite people with hatred.

How was it clear that they were instigators and not people who had really suffered?

They ran away because of those demonstrations that were held in Armenia. Maybe they were just afraid. That's all. One of them said that they had killed his father and mother, and then they saw him laughing, pleased with himself. A person whose father and mother had been killed two days before wouldn't have been so pleased. They simply deceived the crowd. They were simply people who had gotten scared by the demonstrations and left Armenia. That's it.

They started to incite the people. Yes, they simply came and started to incite people. Who was behind them — I don't know...

WREATH TO COMMEMORATE SUMGAIT VICTIMS

21 years ago, in 26-28 February, 1988 Azeri perpetrators conducted a massacre over the local peaceful Armenians. Today, in the morning the members of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun, representative of the ARF, National Assembly Deputy Armen Rustamyan, writer Zori Balayan, eye witnessed gathered at the moment commemorating the memory of Sumgait victims and put wreaths on it. Armen Rustamyan said that it is already 21 years Azerbaijan remains unpunished and currently it is obvious that lying in the international organizations is easier than telling the truth. Azerbaijan has turned over the events. Sumgait events are the evidence to the fact where those crimes started, and that people of Nagorno Karabakh have right of self determination in their own territories, said Armen Rustamyan. Roman Ghambaryan, who is the head of the group defending the rights of Sumgait Armenians and an eye witnessed of those events, tells about the day when they lost their father. There were 20 thousand Armenians. Many died in third micro region. When they started to break into houses, they invaded into ours. On 28 February at 6 oclock the crowd attacked our building. My father, mother, brother and me were keeping the door but they broke it and entered. We were fighting but we could not save our father, he was seriously injured. The next day when they came we found a shelter at our neighbors house, he told. The real facts of Sumgait massacre should be presented in many international organizations as the Azeri try to distort the facts.